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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Cauliflower Crust

I am not on the Paleo diet. But as we go thru different fads and diets I like the creative thinking that inspire people to do different things with food. And wanting to be versatile in my technique for self education and my clients, I tend to try the new recipes that start circulating. Maybe even putting my own spin on it! ~ Lets start with the Cauliflower Pizza Crust.

Pulse the cauliflower down. I have a full size processor but it was still better to do one head of cauliflower in two batches.

If you stop a little bit before this stage they say you can use the cauliflower as a 'rice' for stir-fried rice! (I will try that out in the future also and give you a report whether or not its worth it)

The recipe was correct, you basically get 4 to 5 cups of 'rice size pieces of cauliflower.

Boiling water. Salt goes in the recipe so I did not 'salt' the water.

Cooking/simmering.

Strainer.

Flour sack cloth or cheesecloth liner.

And drain.

Pull together.

Now here is where I deviated just a little, people were talking about how hot and wet the cauliflower was and whether they needed to wait a bit for it to cool down? NO! Just get out a rubber spatula or small pot and mash that baby down until you can't get any more out...no need for handling it with your hands!!!

Dry crumb clumpy texture, ready for mixing.

Add ingredients. Here is where the recipe called for goat cheese, I substituted with cream cheese with great results. In the future I think adding real shredded Parmesan would help in taste and structure in addition to cream cheese.

Mix. I like to use my hands.

This technique I actually use on my pizza dough because I hate cleaning up and dealing with flour. Use two pieces of nonstick sprayed parchment paper with mixture in between. You don't actually even need to 'roll' the dough out, use it to smooth the dough out. I push down on rolling pin and smash outward feeling the thickness and watching it spread even.

Hand contour (spray your hand with nonstick spray so it doesn't stick) your crust so it looks like what you want.

Bake it according to recipe. I have some dark spots because I let it get a bit thin in these areas.

I started basic because I wanted to really taste and observe the crust. So sauce and cheese.

Throw back in the oven on the stone. (still re-using the same parchment paper under it). Looks good! Looks like a boring old cheese pizza! LOL

Crusts holds together like a real bread or dough. Some parts even crunchy with a bit of chew. Will it ever replace a real pizza crust or fake somebody out? Nah, I don't think so...maybe small kids! But the taste is neutral enough and recipe technique ingenious enough to be a great idea! (and great Carb replacement)